II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5276 

To require a roadmap for the future desired state for the solid rocket 

motor (SRM) industrial base, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 

Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mr. PADILLA, and Mr. WICKER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Armed Services 

A BILL 

To require a roadmap for the future desired state for the 

solid rocket motor (SRM) industrial base, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Solid Propulsion En5 hancement and Advancement for Readiness Act of 2024’’ 

6 or the ‘‘SPEAR Act of 2024’’. 

7 SEC. 2. SOLID ROCKET MOTOR INDUSTRIAL BASE. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than March 1, 2025, the 

9 Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and 


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1 Sustainment, acting through the Director of the Joint 

2 Production Accelerator Cell and the Assistant Secretary 

3 of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, shall submit to the 

4 congressional defense committees a roadmap for the fu5 ture desired state for the solid rocket motor (SRM) indus6 trial base. 

7 (b) COORDINATION.—In developing this roadmap re8 quired under subsection (a), the Under Secretary of De9 fense for Acquisition and Sustainment shall coordinate 

10 with the following officials: 

11 (1) The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Re12 search, Development, and Acquisition. 

13 (2) The Assistant Secretary of the Army for 

14 Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology. 

15 (3) The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force 

16 for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. 

17 (4) Service munitions Program Executive Offi18 cers, as appropriate. 

19 (5) The Director of the Missile Defense Agency. 

20 (c) ELEMENTS.—The roadmap under subsection (a) 

21 shall include the following elements: 

22 (1) The current and future capability and ca23 pacity of existing solid rocket motor manufacturers, 

24 Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman (for25 merly Orbital ATK). 


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1 (2) The capability and capacity of potential new 

2 entrants to the solid rocket motor industrial base, 

3 including companies funded by the United States 

4 Government. 

5 (3) An assessment of the process for qualifying 

6 new entrants, including new manufacturing proc7 esses, for solid rocket motors. 

8 (4) An assessment of the capacity and capa9 bility of the SRM industrial base to support the de10 mands of existing munitions program of record. 

11 (5) An assessment of the capacity and capa12 bility of the SRM industrial base to support poten13 tial future demands of munitions programs. 

14 (6) An assessment of emerging technologies or 

15 manufacturing processes that would support the 

16 modernization or evolution of the SRM industrial 

17 base. 

18 (7) A mapping of program of record and antici19 pated or potential future munitions programs to 

20 SRM manufacturer throughput. 

21 (8) Identification of current and potential 

22 shortfalls in common precursors and chemicals. 

23 (9) United States Government funding to date 

24 for the SRM industrial base, whether through pro25 grams of record or through Defense Production Act 


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1 (DPA) or Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment 

2 (IBAS) programs, broken out by fiscal year and pur3 pose. 

4 (10) A plan to prioritize government funding 

5 for energetics facilities in the following precedence: 

6 (A) Government-owned, government-oper7 ated facilities. 

8 (B) Government-owned, contractor-oper9 ated facilities. 

10 (C) Contractor-owned, contractor-operated 

11 facilities. 

12 (d) GAO REVIEW.—Not later than June 1, 2025, the 

13 Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct 

14 a review of Department of Defense decisions regarding the 

15 SRM industry since February 1, 2022, including— 

16 (1) the requested levels of funding for muni17 tions using solid rocket motors, broken down by 

18 motor diameter; 

19 (2) the requested levels of funding for direct in20 vestment in government-owned, government-operated 

21 facilities, government-owned, contractor-operated fa22 cilities, and contractor-owned, contractor-operated 

23 facilities; 

24 (3) the requested levels of funding for direct in25 vestment in the SRM supplier base; 


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1 (4) the potential adverse effects of prioritizing 

2 privately owned SRM production infrastructure over 

3 government-owned SRM production infrastructure; 

4 and 

5 (5) a cost and capabilities comparison between 

6 the expansion of existing infrastructure at the Alle7 gany Ballistics Laboratory and construction of new 

8 infrastructure at Naval Surface Warfare Center, In9 dian Head. 

Æ 


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